American writer wins Orange prize

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Madeline Miller

AMERICAN WRITER Madeline Miller beat favourites like Ann Patchett and Cynthia Ozick to win the Orange prize for fiction, exclusively for women writing in English, for her debut novel The Song of Achilles.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Miller was awarded £30,000 and a limited edition bronze figurine called the Bessie at a ceremony held at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Wednesday night. Both the prize money and the figurine are anonymously endowed.
The novel deals with the story of Patroclus, an awkward young prince, who has been exiled to Phthia, and his friendship, romance and relationship with Achilles, based on Homer’s Illiad.
“The story was told with all the intensity and accuracy that this world of violence and superstition and romance deserves,” the jury said about the book. The jury for the prize, headed by writer Joanna Trollope, comprised novelist Lisa Appignanesi, journalist Victoria Derbyshire, writer Natalie Haynes, and broadcaster Natasha Kaplinsky.
“This is a more than worthy winner — original, passionate, inventive and uplifting. Homer would be proud of her,” Trollope said as she announced Miller as the winner in presence of Kate Mosse, the co-founder and honorary director of the prize. “It’s a book which will appeal to all ages. It’s a book which despite some of the stiffest competition in the modern writing world is a truly worthy winner.”
“Even when we all knew what was going to happen at the end, she managed to surprise us. It was the only book that made us cry and we cried every time we read it,” Trollope said after the award ceremony.
Miller, who was born in Boston, had been working on The Song of Achilles for the last 10 years. At present, the classics post-graduate from Brown University teaches Latin and writes fiction. She has also taught Greek and Shakespeare. She also has a degree from the Yale School of Drama for specialising in adapting classical tales for a modern audience. Miller began writing fiction when she was in high school, the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
The six-book shortlist for 2012 included Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan; The Forgotten Waltz by Booker winner Anne Enright; Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding; State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, who won the Orange prize for fiction for her book Bel Canto in 2002; and Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick.
The prize, which was instituted 17 years ago, was the last awarded under the sponsorship of Orange, as the mobile company announced its decision last week to end its 17-year-old sponsorship deal. The founders of the prize are now looking for a new sponsor for next year.
Serbian-American writer Téa Obreht became the youngest-ever author to win the Orange prize for fiction for her debut novel The Tiger’s Wife in 2011. American author Barbara Kingsolver won in 2010 for her critically acclaimed novel The Lacuna and American writer Marilynne Robinson won for Home in 2009. Miller’s win makes this an Orange prize triumph for American writers for the fourth year in running.
No Indian writer has won the prize as yet. There was no Indian woman in this year’s 20-strong longlist. In 2011, Chennai-based writer Tishani Doshi had made the longlist for her first novel, The Pleasure Seekers. Pakistani-origin British writer Roopa Farooki had also made the longlist in 2010 for her fifth novel, The Flying Man.